May 5, 2012
NCTC to upset the federal structure of the country: Mamata Banerjee
West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said institutions like NCTC �”upset” the federal structure of the country and was “not acceptable” to the state. She said setting up of institutions like National Counter Terrorism Centre with the proposed powers of arrest and seizure upsets the federal structure of the country and strongly urged the central government to withdraw order on its formation.
“It is unfortunate that in utter disregard to these federal principles, the NCTC was set up by an executive order dated February 3, 2012 of the union home ministry without adequate consultations with the states.
“These kind of unilateral steps of the union government in matters which fall within the jurisdictions of the States only increases the trust-deficit between the centre and states,” Mamata said in a especially convened meeting of chief ministers on the constitution of NCTC in New Delhi.
Mamata Banerjee said setting up of institutions like the NCTC with the proposed powers of arrest, search and seizure “greatly upsets the constitutionally-mandated federal structure of the country by infringing on the power of the States”.
“The IB is, for valid reasons, a secret intelligence organisation, without legislative accountability. There is, therefore, a danger of grave misuse of the powers of arrest, search and seizures given to the IB through the NCTC. A central intelligence agency with unbridled powers of search, seizure and arrest, without the consent or knowledge of the state governments is not acceptable to us,” she said.
Taking the opportunity, the Trinamool Congress Chairperson demanded special dispensation of funds and other logistic support for the state to equip it with modernised police force and strong intelligence agencies.
“The resources at the disposal of the state government are inadequate to take care of the problems in the border areas, inaccessible regions, left wing extremism affected areas and riverine and coastal regions.
“There are serious infrastructural deficiencies that have accumulated over several years of neglect in regard to communication, roads, vehicles, equipments, etc for the police and security forces. I would urge the Central government to grant a special allocation for West Bengal,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee said that the exercise of police functions should remain the prerogative of the state as enshrined in the Constitution and the well-conceived equilibrium of powers and responsibilities between the centre and the states should not be disturbed under any circumstances.
The Centre's decision of creating NCTC has caused clamour among many state governments including West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odissa among others strongly opposing the move taken without consulting them.
